


night off

by tipper_gore_vidal



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Book 1: Water (Avatar), Episode: s01e15 Bato of the Water Tribe, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25779409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tipper_gore_vidal/pseuds/tipper_gore_vidal
Summary: She's sore and stinks of a million different perfumes, but at least she has a drink in her hand and someone to tease.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 53





	night off

**Author's Note:**

> Okay with: translations and podifcs. Please just ask my permission first, and link me when you're done!
> 
> Not okay with: having my fic used in articles about fans or fandom.

_At least he’s more subtle than his uncle_ , June thought as she eyed the kid, not that it was a high bar to clear. The long cloak mostly hid his Fire Nation style tangzhuan, but his horsetail stood out in the crowded, dimly-lit tavern. She kept him in her peripheral vision, smirking at how his scarred eye widened a little when she propped her legs up on the small table.

"Where's your uncle, Angry Boy?" she asked, and he startled.

"He’s on the ship," Angry Boy finally answered after rotating through several indignant facial expressions that the past few days left June all too familiar with.

June wondered how Angry Boy convinced the bartender to give a kid his age the cup of baiju he was nursing. She took a sip of her own, savoring its burn in the back of her throat. 

"Ogling me out of the corner of your scarred eye doesn't make it less noticable," she told him. That stupid hairstyle meant she could see the blush creep up his scalp, stubbly in the late evening.

He took a sip, too big, and made a face.

"Aww, poor baby. Maybe you should've ordered a banana/moon-peach smoothie instead." Angry Boy rolled his eyes, but didn't move away. 

The man several tables over craning his neck around him to look at her probably wished he did, though. June was wary, but he didn’t deserve her attention. Men like that, she found, withered when ignored. The fight at the abbey left her bruised and sore, and it would be another day before Nyla’s paralytic fully left her body. She could take the guy blindfolded with her hands tied behind her, of course, but she wasn't in the mood for breaking heads tonight. 

Angry Boy wasn’t high on the list of people she wanted to see outside of work, but he was proving to be convenient. Young though he was, Fire Nation soldiers had such a (deservedly) bad reputation along the Mo Ce coast that nobody was stupid enough to bother him. Probably. She decided to take a chance.

"Why aren't you with him?" she asked.

"I'm not his keeper!" he said loudly, but maybe realizing he sounded a bit deranged, lowered his voice and said, "It's music night."

June crinkled her nose. "Eugh, good point."

"Your food!" A serving girl interrupted to hand him a plate of delicious-smelling crab puffs. Her long sleeves were bunched protectively over her palms. He took them barehanded.

"Thanks,” he said.

They looked delicious for such a sleazy tavern. Perfectly golden-brown, crispy-looking, still steaming. She bet they were even good without sauce. June's stomach growled.

She sat up and magnanimously wiped the mud off the table with her sleeve. "I guess you can sit down."

"...thank you," he said, though his good eye narrowed in suspicion. _Huh, he does have common sense_ , June thought.

She proved him right when she popped a puff in her mouth. Just as good as she thought it would be.

He huffed, but grudgingly moved his plate further over so June could reach them. She wasn’t a complete mooch, though; next time she caught the bartender's eye, she put two fingers up.

Turns out Angry Boy was much more tolerable with booze in him and away from his creepy uncle. He was a great combination of stir-crazy from how much time he must’ve spent on that ship, easily-provoked, and, she suspected, not used to talking to women, especially ones who looked like her. Perfect for teasing.

"So you let the pirates take your boat?" she goaded him.

"I got it back!”

Recognition sparked in her when he told her about their smoke bombs.

“Did the captain have an iguana-parrot?” Angry Boy nodded.

“I know them, they couldn’t find their asses with two hands and a map!”

He fumed, quite literally. “It's the Water Tribe boy's fault, he turned them against me!"

"Does Water Tribe boy have a name?"

"I know it has a 'kuh' sound...." he said. She smirked, and Angry’s drunk flush mottled and spread from his cheek up his ear and scalp. 

"A lot of Water Tribe names do, good job genius. You gonna tell me you don't know the Avatar's name next?"

"I do too!" he spluttered, horsetail swinging dangerously close to her eye. “And you don’t know my name either!” The nickname was getting under his skin. Excellent.

"It's just--"

"Wanted to make it harder for me to find him if I decided to hunt him myself?" she said slyly.

Angry Boy's denial was as incoherent as it was vehement. His hair swung in June's face again, and she tugged it without thinking; his hair was surprisingly soft and the ends well-maintained. She’d have to ask what he uses. He froze mid-tirade, the tension in his face shifting without going away. She would’ve thought it anger if he hadn’t suddenly snapped his legs together and pulled the table in so quickly he almost spilled their drinks.

"Good instincts, but after today, you couldn't pay me enough to fight that kid again," she said.

Angry Boy stuffed the last crab puff in his mouth, presumably to give him time to think.

"He's so quick, it's tough to get a hold on him," he complained around the mouthful.

“The sailors teach you those manners?” she asked and he quickly swallowed. She didn’t care, but it was funny to watch.

"How's your shirshu, by the way?" he asked. "Did the perfumes hurt her?"

"She's fine, resting in the stables." His sincere appreciation for Nyla was one of the only things she liked about him when they were chasing the Avatar. She even caught him petting her when she came back from a piss in the woods.

June was about to congratulate him on what she was sure was a rare lack of self-absorption, when one of the men who wouldn't stop staring at her approached. 

"Hey baby, ditch the kid! I'm a lot more fun than him." He grinned roguishly and at her like he wasn’t an ugly son of a hogmonkey’s uncle. She simply raised an eyebrow at him, but gave no response.

The longer she stayed silent, the more graphic his comments on her body and what he wanted to do to it grew. They were probably shocking in this clergy-run backwater town, but June had heard worse, and she told him so. 

"Shut up and leave," Angry Boy told him, exhaling smoke like the world’s least intimidating dragon. June bit back a comment asking why he couldn’t say that to his uncle.

"Ooh, I'm so scared," he said in a mock-baby voice and ran a finger over her tattoo. That's when she elbowed him in the stomach.

He oofed in a satisfying way, but she didn't throw him off. He simply grabbed her arm and tried to pull her out of the chair. June wasn’t proud of it, but she kicked his shin like a little girl. She didn't need the help, but it was convenient for Angry Boy to reach past her as the asshole reared back to throw a punch. She smelled the fabric sizzle before realizing what happened.

The thug yelped, and June barely glimpsed the hand-shaped burn mark on his forearm before he reared back and swung at Angry's face.

Angry Boy ducked easily, and June took advantage of the distraction to shove the table into the thug's thighs. He fell over with a loud clanging that left June grateful he didn't draw whatever weapon made the noise.

He was dumb enough to try to get up again. June kicked his legs out from underneath him, and he stumbled into another patron.

"You! Out!" the bartender yelled.

June didn't bother chasing him out the door. He wasn't worth it.

She sat down, but the bartender rounded on them and said "You two, out after you pay your tabs!"

There was no arguing with that, though by the look on Angry Boy's face, he wanted to try.

“Not worth it,” she whispered to him as the bartender filled her hip flask.

He took her advice; they paid and left without another boring fight.

“I’m in the inn down the road,” she told him. She wanted to take her booze back to her room and--

“Can I see your shirshu?”

"No. She's tired and you'll wake her up."

"I can be quiet," Angry Boy whined. Maybe she should call him Whiny Boy instead. It would suit him just as well.

"Why do you even want to see her?" she asked.

The kid stumbled on the uneven road, but righted himself quickly. "She--I dunno--I didn't see you bring medicine...."

"Nothing's broken, she just had some scrapes from that beast throwing her into the wall. I cleaned her wounds and she's fine. Do you think I take bad care of her?"

At that, he looked genuinely mortified. "No!"

It was the first clear night this week. The grass was starting to turn green again and the pine forest made everything, even the tavern, smell fresh. She understood why he didn't want to go back to being the only teenager on a ship full of old men. 

"Do you know which way your ship is?" she asked. Angry Boy clearly had no practice holding his liquor, and she didn't want to be responsible for him. It took him a moment, but he pointed to the road June knew led to the beach.

"Go! You don't want them to leave without you." The only thing she knew about the ship's chain of command was that he was far higher up than he should be, but he was tipsy enough to blanch before saying they couldn't do that.

"I saw how they all look at you, they’re probably tempted," June needled him. “Come on, let’s go.”

Angry Boy squinted in the dark and finally, _finally_ started to meander down the dark road with her.

The first time he tried to bend, the fire flared too big in his hand.

June recoiled instinctually. "Hey!"

"Be careful, dumbass," she hissed at him when he got his fire under control. "You--."

She eyed his scar and almost said _You don't want another one of those, do you?_

His expression soured like he knew what she was thinking, but didn’t say anything. 

"They should be done by now," he said more to himself than to her. “Hope Uncle’s below deck.” 

“You snuck out, didn’t you,” she said.

“...Yeah.”

“Here’s my inn,” she said. “You’re on your own from here.”

He was looking at her lips, and she should’ve known that’s why he was dragging his feet. She set her face, ready to tell him she liked men, not boys when--

“He shouldn’t have,” Angry Boy said, and it took her a moment.

“The look on his face when you burned him--”

“No,” Angry Boy said. “I meant earlier. My uncle.” That wasn’t the usual revelation boys had after spending part of their night hiding an erection, but she wasn’t complaining.

“Yep, it was really shitty of him.” 

“This is the inn,” she said, and because she was unacceptably sentimental tonight, added “Get back to your ship in one piece.”

**Author's Note:**

> Concrit is welcome, especially since this is my first time writing in a while.


End file.
